Letter 69 - Forty-two and Eighteen

Dear loved ones, 

Another week in Thailand has flown by. We are less than seven months away from the end of our mission. I am already sad about that! We are in the middle of mango season and near the end of the hot season. The rainy season is on the way and we have already had a thunderstorm or two.

It was a busy week filled with celebrating 42 years of marriage (woohoo), working in the office, and giving patriarchal blessings! We have met some wonderful people in India over the past 8 days, as John has given 18 blessings to members who have come to Thailand to go to the temple and receive their blessings. 

The pictures tell the story, so let's get to it! 

But first, as always, we love you, miss you, and thank you for your love, support, and prayers!

Love, 

Elder and Sister Brady (mom and dad, grandpa and grandma, John and Shelly, and so on)

Throw back to the RMRT seminar! Here we are stepping off the dance floor! It was a good time!

Last Saturday, John and I got to meet with Sister Bairi. She is in the MTC here in Thailand and recieved her Patriarchal blessing. She was so excited to get her blessing. Please notice the sweater I am wearing! Our apartment AC was broken and it would not go above 20C or 68F! I was freezing, especially coming in from 100 degree heat outside! We offered Sister Bairi an apology and a sweater! 

This is Elder Karunakaran, also from the MTC. Both of these missionaries are from India. We had 2 blessings on Friday and these 2 on Saturday (all from India). He had a fun personality and was so happy to get his blessing too! 

After the blessings, we headed downstairs for the end of the RMRT seminar. We grabbed a boxed lunch and said goodbye to some of our new friends. The sisters were from Vietnam and the young man, was from Hong Kong.

Time for one more selfie! 

On Sunday, I could not resist taking a picture of the children's choir singing in Stake Conference. They were so darling! The two girls in the front middle are the grandchildren of our good friend Patti who is from our home ward back in Oregon, but now lives in Thailand!

Sunday afternoon blessings - Elder Rama from India - in the MTC here on the 3rd floor! Such a fine young man!

And Elder Mourougane - from India in the MTC! So happy to get his blessing too. Notice I still have the sweater on!! 

Elder Brady on the elevator! On our way down to the office on the 2nd floor to type up the blessings. 

Sunday night zoom fireside! Hello Sister Zabala and Sister Jasper! 

Elder Guanuna gives his farewell devotional. We have so many missionaries leaving between now and July 16th that we will have firesides every Sunday evening at 9pm between now and then! 

Monday - May the 4th be with you! We are celebrating our anniversary a day early, because we have a busy day on our actual anniversary! And a busy days that follow! We decided to go to the movies and eat a giant bucket of popcorn! Yummmmmm! 

We spent a few extra Baht on the "love seat!" We got cheese popcorn and caramel popcorn. We watched "The Hail Mary Project." It was a good clean movie! Loved it! 

Happy actual anniversary! 42 years! The Seniors were in charge of zone conference breakfast. The zone leaders requested bagels and English muffins again with yogurt and granola. It was a fairly low stress meal, except for the part when our order did not show up Monday morning (even though I got an email that said it was delivered and my credit card got charged), so after the movie Monday night, we went to the grocery store and purchased the rest of what we needed for the breakfast! 

Throw back to our wedding reception! We were married on May 5, 1984 before Cinco De Mayo was even a thing! We had our reception the following weekend! I loved my Lady Diana style wedding dress with the puffy sleaves!!! It's so hard to believe that 42 years have gone by! 

Throw back to the RMRT Seminar - bus ride to the dinner cruise! 

Throw back to the RMRT Seminar - this was the group in the workshop I was leading. 

Overcoming Obstacles Joyfully (Bill Porter's story). I have been telling that story for nearly 30 years now! How can you not love Bill's story! 

Throwback to the RMRT seminar - here we are meeting the RMs as they arrive!

Introducing our selves! I look crazy!

Meeting Elder Buckner and wife and daughter.

Fun times! 

Back to Tuesday - Bangkok Zone group picture at the end of the Zone Conference.

Our Rayong Sisters! Sister Jasper and Sister Zabala and the Calls and Bradys!

A few from the 5th floor! 

Tuesday afternoon blessings! Elder Brady gave 3 blessings to this sweet family from India. President and Sister Veeraraj and their son Ramesh. President Veeraraj is the Branch President of his branch in India and he came with several branch members to serve and worship in the temple for the week. 12 of his branch members requested blessings. Normally, Elder Brady does 1 or maybe 2 blessings in a day. In order to make this work, he would have to do 3 per day. At first we did not think it could be done (especially after getting out of the hospital not so long ago), but with a lot of prayer and faith and the realization that it would be so hard to turn anyone away, Elder Brady decided to go ahead and offer blessings to them all. They were so happy. 

Throw back to some goals we set back when we first got married. We drew a picture of a road that leads to the sunset of our lives. Because the drawing is a little fuzzy, I will list our goals as a married couple: 

1 - Finish Old Testament (we did!)

2 - Write a Book (I wrote "Ten Things I Learned from Bill Porter!)

3 - Get out of debt (we did!)

4 - Retire (we did!)

5 - Go on a mission (WE ARE!)

We wrote this back in the 1980s, I came across it before we left for our mission and brought a copy of it with us! And I just came across it again in our apartment. I thought it was a timely addition to the blog.

Wednesday Blessings - Husband and wife, Brother Gnanamuthu and Sister Natesan, received their blessings. Their son Winston Churchill joined us for the occasion. 

Sister Christy received her blessing on Wednesday also with so much joy and excitement! 

She was a lot of fun and looked much younger than her years! She also wanted to take some pictures with her camera! And she invited us to come visit in India! 

Wednesday evening, we went to the MTC to drop off the patriarchal blessings and we happened to show up at dinner time. We got invited to join them for a delicious meal of Indian food! 

It was our lucky evening! 

Thursday we met with the Powell family. This is Brother and Sister Powell and their son Brady! 

We loved that he had the same name as us! They shared their stories of how they came to know and love Jesus Christ. Brady is only 11, but will be turning 12 soon. 

He was happy to get a blessing with his parents. 

This is Lisa who lives in India and was with this branch of members serving in the temple! 

Christy wanted a picture receiving her printed copy of the blessing! 

Sister Margret Powell wanted a picture as well! 

Friday, we met with another Powell family. Brother Powell (next to Elder Brady) had already received his patriarchal blessing when he served as a missionary 20 years ago. His wife and daughters were able to receive theirs on this occasion. Side note, Brother Powell is brothers with the other Brother Powell who received a blessing the day before. 

This is Ishla Powell and her daughters Belina and Belita. Ishla serves as the Relief Society President. She was instrumental in putting together this temple trip and arranging for hundreds of names to go to the temple. She shared her conversion story and how she came to know Jesus Christ and how He is truly her friend and Savior. We ended up spending a long time with this family getting to know them and hearing their stories. The girls even sang for us. They have beautiful voices. It was a special experience, one we will always remember. 

Friday afternoon, I got an email from a missionary momma wanting to know what kind of shoes she should send with her son. I asked our office Elders if I could take pictures of their shoes to send to the momma, and they said sure! I love the wear and tear I see on their shoes - that shows the miles walked to share the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. To me those shoes are beautiful! 

I love this verse found in Isaiah 52:7:

How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, 

that publisheth peace; 

that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; 

that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth! 

I am a day late getting the blog out, but by the end of Friday, I was done! 

So it is Saturday afternoon now!

If you made it this far and are a mother:

Happy Mother's Day tomorrow! 

This concludes this weeks blog!

Thanks for reading!

Bye!

Letter 68 - Moving Days and RMRT Seminar Week

 Dear family and friends,

I'm a day late on this because this week has been so full! We have had our regular office duties, patriarchal blessings and the RMRT (Returned Missionary Return to the Temple) Seminar and on top of all of that we moved to another apartment last weekend! So, there has not been a moment to spare! 

Today is May 2nd - So happy birthday to Tessa! I'm taking a quick minute to blog this Saturday morning and then we are off to the temple for the last day of the seminar. And John has two blessings to give to a couple of missionaries from India who are currently in the MTC here in Thailand! So it is another full day! 

I just got through with my morning stair climb, and I thought I would pop into the office to get some pictures dragged over to the blog! Read on for all of the details of the week! 

As always we love you and we miss you and we thank you for your love, support, notes and prayers! 

Love,

Elder and Sister Brady (mom and dad, grandpa and grandma, John and Shelly, and so on)

What is the significance of a photo of a drawer of utensils you ask?! 

Well - let me tell you! We moved last Saturday! We moved down the hall from apartment 505 to 502. And we have really grown accustomed to these little spoons and forks. I wanted to make sure the new place had the same silverware! 

I also wanted to make sure I had the same kind of pans and room for my baking ingredients. I don't cook much, but I have mastered the use of the oven here! And we love an occasional homemade chocolate chip cookie! 

On Saturday we moved! In case I did not mention it! Haha! We started at 7am and by 5pm we were nearly moved in and settled (that included time cleaning the other apartment for the new Senior Missionaries. I wish I had taken pictures of all of the boxes and the mess. But this picture is the last little mess I needed to sort through. Why did we move, you ask? Well, we wanted to be on the East Mission side of the Annex. That is just a little OCD of us. But the bigger reason is that this room is bigger! The two rooms on the ends are smaller (we were in one of those rooms). And the three middle rooms are bigger! We are excited to have a little more space! 

  On Sunday we attended the Bangkok International Ward instead of going to Rayong. John had a blessing to give that day - plus we spent all day Saturday moving. We love to attend church and to partake of the Sacrament and to feel closer to God. We also loved watching these cute little ones through out the meeting. It sure makes us miss our family back home! PS - that is our sweet friend Kaitlyn playing with the little ones. I think their mother was able to enjoy some of the meeting because of Kaitlyn's help.

The little ones continued to entertain us! 

  Outside of the chapel, the Thai Speaking ward set up some beautiful table decorations. Sister Thorsen from the West mission attends that ward and she shared these pictures with me. 

The entire display is so beautiful! Those gorgeous carvings are Watermelons!!!!!

Sunday afternoon, Elder Brady gave Ramsey from Hungary a blessing. 

This is Ramsey with his older brother. His older brother lives here in Thailand (and happens to be the father of those adorable children). Ramsey is leaving soon for his mission. He will be going to Boston. 

On Monday, President Kanyaphan stopped by the office with treats for us Senior missionaries. Avocado smoothies! Yum! They were a favorite of Elder Belnaps. The yummy tradition continues on!

Thanks President! 

Throw back to our training day (last Friday)! We only had two missionaries arrive in Thailand this month. We are excited to get to know Elder Banana and Sister Allen.

Elder Brady chatting with the Elders. I nabbed this pictures from a video made of the East mission arrival and transfer day!

Tuesday is another moving day. This time Elder Brady is meeting with the landlords to close a condo out in Ramkhamhaeng. We have had a number of missionaries leave and not as many arrive, so we have to close a few of our missionary accommodations. 

The Elders did a pretty good job cleaning out the place. Since Elder Brady was in the hospital, the missionaries did all of this work themselves! This is all that is left to move or get rid of. 

After the condo closing, we stopped by Sandy's pizza place to buy some pizza. Sandy is our friend whose husband passed away not long ago. 

Sandy is so sweet and her pizza is delicious. 

We also stopped at the Elders to drop off the condo key. They will be helping to finish up the Condo closing by contacting the Bishop and donating the bunk beds and other items to some ward members! 

Thank you Elder Htoo and Elder Guanuna! 

Tuesday afternoon, the office ladies went out for ice cream to say good bye to Sister Meeker who finishes her 21 month mission! And to welcome Sister Thorsen who is new to the West Mission office. 

We will miss Elder and Sister Meeker. Thank you for the ice cream treat Sister Meeker! 

Also pictured: Sister Justensen, me, and Sister Call!

Featuring Swensen's Ice cream! This was delicious! 

Wednesday the RMRT Seminar begins! We finally get to meet the Packards in person! Sister Packard and I have spent a lot of time conversing via email! Here is a fun fact - they are best friends with some of our best friends - the Garlocks (from Tacoma). It is such a fun, small world! 

Here is another fun story! This is Sister Buckner and her cute daughter (recently returned missionary) Lauren. Elder Buckner (her husband) was our presiding general authority at the RMRT event. He is in the Asia Area Presidency. Sister Buckner and I kept talking to each other about how we both looked so familiar to each other. Not to long into the event, John was talking with Elder Buckner about his time serving as Stake President (around the same time John was Stake President). The Buckners are from NYC and we have visited their stake for church a few times on vacation back East. Finally, John said he met a Young Stake President from Manhattan at Philmont Scout Camp back in 2008. They were there with there young family of 5 kids. We were there with our children at the time. Elder Buckner said, "that would have been me!! And my family!!" And that explains why Sister Buckner looked so familiar! I spent a week with her at Philmont. All of the women dropped their children off at the various age group "camps," and then we had our own woman's camp where we hiked, did a cope course, enjoyed time together in uplifting workshops, and just got to know each other! It really is a fun, small world! 

Here we are with our new friends (returned missionaries) from Vietnam! 

Our group had RMs from Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, China, Hong Kong, and India. 

Wednesday night dessert was ice cream. I thought the add ons were mango and sweet sticky rice! I took a bite and found out it was some kind of potato and plain sticky rice! I still ate it all! Haha! 

This is my friend from Indonesia. We played a game where we had to make animal noises and find our matching animal! We were both cats! :)

Thursday nigh was the Dinner Cruise! Here we are on the bus! Time to go! 

Resting at the fountain! 

It was so hot and we got there a couple of hours before the cruise, so we headed inside to the AC at Big C grocery store and got ourselves some ice cream to cool down! And to tide us over! Dinner was not until 8pm! We are normally almost in bed by that time! 

This ice cream looks interesting! Low Fat and Fish??? We did not try it! 

Waiting for the group to gather by the big Ferris Wheel to head over to the cruise!

On the cruise at last. Our table had us, the Packards, and the Buckners. 

Wat Arun! So beautiful! 

The dancing has begun! 

Dancing under an almost full moon! 

The gorgeous skyline. 

The beautiful moon. 

Friday lunch time! Friday morning, I gave my Bill Porter talk. I related Bill's story to the challenges that returned missionaries have when they get home and face the world! No pictures of the talk this time.

After lunch, we had two patriarchal blessings for two of the RMRT attendees. This is Varshini from India. She is so sweet. We were so happy to be a part of her special day. 

Mamatha's blessing got entered into our system at the very last minute. She was so happy because she wanted a blessing so bad and it was looking like it was not going to happen. After a lot of work by Elder Buckner and prayers by everyone, she was able to receive her blessing. She was so happy. 

Elder Buckner and Elder Brady.

Time for a picture! All of the attendees. The leaders in front are the Packards, Bradys, Buckners, Whites (he was one of the first missionaries in Thailand and later was a mission leader with his wife - they were actually our current mission leader's leaders! haha - does that make sense?), and Thata (who helped with the conference)!

Mamatha and Varshini

Elder Buckner gives the group some final words of wisdom on Friday evening. 

Well, it is finally the end of the day on Saturday - I will start next week's blog with today. But for now it is evening, I am tired, and I want to get this posted! 

Thanks for reading! 

We love you and miss you!